What Trim, Ireland taught me.

As many of you know I stayed in Trim, Ireland for 5 weeks total, what you do not know is that I felt at home in this town and I felt as if I had lived there.

1. History- Aside from the obvious learning dates of when places of interest were founded and by who. It was amazing to actually be in that area and seeing the past and present stand together as a collective unit. To see massive structures that had been built by human hands without the machines we have today. Allowed me to see the innovation and ingenuity of humans and of our ancestors. I am now empathetic to my ancestors who lived in the middle ages. I was always told that Ireland and UK were cold and wet, especially their castles. This was no lie.
   
2. Culture - Movies and TV shows are big fat liars. There is no old man who gives you superstitious advice, the only thing they give you is HORRIBLE directions (and it is not a set of cultural directions). I literally got pointed in the wrong direction. The drunks I encountered were the Americans and Canadians I was with, the Irish in the pubs were not drinking excessively nor were they loud and obnoxious. I learned quite quickly that #publife is only meant for socialization not excessive drinking (the pubs made a ton of money off us).
   
3. Hospitality- This could be defined with culture but Irish hospitality is not unlike Southern hospitality where the visitors are very welcomed. This is perhaps why I felt very at home, because I felt welcomed and their definition of hospitality is somewhat like mine. We both serve tea and cookies to guests, well sometimes I serve coffee but mostly it's sweet iced tea. I really missed iced sweet tea, A LOT. I tried to make some and I failed miserably.
4. Pride - I learned to accept my quirks and where I come from. 
5. Dreams - I found my true passions and found my direction in life, where I would like my career path to lead. 
6. Weather - Despite me living in Fl and everyday is a 30% chance of rain, I learned how to prepare for weather in Ireland and UK. It is cold up there for a Southerner like myself, I will never use an umbrella in Ireland again; only raincoats and rain boots and don't bother with the umbrella. Trust me, it'll just end up inside out. RIP Mr. Purple.
   

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8 Saving Techniques

Now I am a college student on a limited income, so I have to try and make my dollar stretch.

1. Try and make a budget- Write down what you spend everyday in a notebook or in an excel spreadsheet. You will see over time where your money is going and where to cut down.

2. Pay attention into what pits you are throwing your money into- I realized that I was going out to eat way to often and buying a lot of coffee. Slowly I began to make my own coffee and making my own food at home. 

3. Use only cash!- Credit cards for emergencies but use cash, because once it's gone it is gone. 

4. Save your change- Have a jar that you put your small change in everyday. If you follow number 3 then you will always have change left over, just put that in that jar and count it when you decide too.

5. Pay-as-you-go phones- Last year my contract was up and I was  in the market for a new phone. After shopping around and doing my budget. I realized I could afford an iPhone, but I didn't want to pay for it. So I decided to get a go-phone and I pay 35 bucks a month for unlimited text, data and (I think) 150 mins. Now it isn't ideal and I sometimes wish I had a new smartphone, but I realized that it is a want and not a necessity. 

6. Necessity vs Want- I remember a conversation I had with my father when I was a freshman, I told him that I 'needed' this purse. He corrected me and told me that I 'wanted' that purse, I can survive without it and I did. With that being said you must evaluate the necessities and wants in your life.

7. Put a portion of your weekly income away into savings.

8. Set goals for yourself.

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Ireland: Aran Islands Part 2

My friend and I decided to head for the black fort on Inis Mor. We had asked a store owner and received the most confusing directions ever. Despite having been in Ireland for 6 weeks there were still some things I found confusing. Instead of streets, he gave directions in markers. For example: instead of telling us to keep going straight until we hit the turquoise house, he told us to make all these turns, but in reality it just were markers. Fortunately we figured that part out after the first mistake. That's one thing to keep in mind when visiting the area is realize the context in which they give directions. Very important, this must be part of what people call 'culture shock'.

The town off into the distance

Our cow friends, they were extremely friendly and liked to be petted. They must be used to passerbys because they ran up to us. When we began walking away they stood there and watched us walk away.

Rocks!

Rocks that are shaped like an arch!

More Rocks!

Fields of rocks!

Our friend coming to greet us on our way back to town

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Tailgating/ Game ootd

Edit: I have noticed that many of my viewers are not American. So let me explain what it is, it is big (especially in the southern region of the U.S). It is essentially a party before the football (American) game. A group of friends, colleagues, family or whoever, they all meet up before the game and have an outdoor barbecue. There is food being cooked, drinks are being drunk and people are getting drunk. Everyone is wearing the team's colours. The reason it's called tailgating I believe is because usually everything is being held out of a pickup truck. About an hour or so before the game everything gets packed up and then everyone walks to the stadium for the game. It is an extremely fun event, I love it. 

What I wore:

Pearl Earrings- my mother's  They're mine now.

Dress- Artsy Abode

Boots- American Eagle

Necklace- Etsy

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How to know you're a College senior

*Disclaimer* This is based on my own personal realizations and some that I have heard in passing.

1. You realize that you have to be a responsible adult now, you may have pushed your graduation date because you're not ready to pay for everything. Now you have to find a real job! A waitress is no longer good enough for you college grad. Better find a desk job.

2. Everyone and their mother is asking you 'What are you going to do after you graduate?' The proper answer is not cry yourself to sleep every night, even though that's what you're going to be doing.

3. On top of your course load you make plans to study for the GRE because why fool yourself, as if you're going to find an adult job right after graduation. Might as well go back to school.

Stay in school kiddos

4. You start thinking of all things you haven't done in your college years and try to get them done before you graduate.

5. You make sure all of your classes are in the afternoon and no classes on Friday. Thirsty Thursdays anyone?

6. Friends? Best Friends? You stopped seeing them regularly sometime between sophomore and junior year because all of you are so busy that you make time to see each other every few weeks. After days of trying to eat lunch with friends, you deal with eating by yourself.

Table for 1, please.

7. You can pick the freshmeat (freshman) out of a lineup. Put that campus map away and don't ask me - who has headphones and sunglasses- for directions. There is an app for that.

8. Your daily outfit for campus is comfortable. You probably stopped dressing up freshman year. Today's ootd? Just rolled out of bed.

9. You apply for graduation and start thinking on how to design your cap. I'm not going to tell you what it is! It's a surprise :).

10. You've used the same backpack for years and now it's falling apart but you don't want to buy a new one because you're about to graduate.

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Aran Islands, Ireland - Part 1

    My very last destination of travel before returning to the U.S was to the Aran Islands. I met with a friend of mine from site and we met in Dublin to take the bus out to Galway so we could take the ferry the next day. We had some misfortunes that day because our bus ended up breaking down and we had to wait 45 mins for another bus to pick us up and take us to Galway. So we were 45 minute behind schedule and we ended up making another stop along the way in a town for about 20 mins. In total we were over an hour off schedule and we would not have been able to make the ferry that day, so we held it off and just waled around Galway a bit.
    Galway is a nice seaside town but honestly I dislike it very much, not really at any fault to the town but the fact that every time we visited something went wrong.

The ferry to the Aran Islands leaves from Galway which is why we were there. We bought our tickets for 26Euros and met the bus at 9am. The company is named Aran Island Ferries (straight and to the point, I like it.) We visited the island Inis Mór because that best fit our schedule and it is the biggest of the 3 islands. These islands are known for their wool which they make into sweaters, hats, gloves etc etc. I have a scarf and a sweater that I bought in Dublin that originates from these islands.

We got to the islands and it is lovely, a small town with a population of 800, it is known for their pride of everything Irish, they even speak it there. We had gone into a pub for lunch and we heard the customers speaking to the bartender in Irish. It was awesome to hear the language spoken.

For people wondering where to leave your luggage, you can leave it on the island and pay one of the shopkeepers 1 euro and they'll take care of it.

The town in the faroff distance when walking to the Black Fort.

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10 Tips for College Freshman

I will be making a video about this but I wanted to write it down first. Now this semester I have a class where the majority are freshman and I see them making some mistakes that I have learned not to make over the years. So these are my tips that I have learned from my undergraduate years.

1: Ratemyprofessors.com- It's a great resource when you're a freshman or sophomore and still have multiple sections and professors to choose from for a single class. Also helps you figure out what the class will be like.

2. Slugbooks.com - This site compares prices of textbooks. Personally I like half.ebay.com and I always buy my textbooks from them. Now because of ratemyprofessor I can look up if the professor uses the book so I can buy the book ahead of time for the cheapest price possible. Now you can watch the savings come rolling in!

Now when your dorm AC isn't working you can use your money to fan yourself!

3. Go to office hours- professors don't care about you if they don't know you, it is the simple truth. Also if your plan is to go to some sort of postgraduate school you will need some recommendation letters. Those professors who know you as a person and not just a grade are most likely to write you some awesome recommendation letters.

4. Use a planner- learn to use it for time management, you will need to use those skills when you're a Junior or Senior.

Even comes with stickers!

5. Stop wearing your high school sweaters, shirts. Everyone will know you're a freshman and you're in a new chapter of your life; you won't need to live in the past.

6. Join a club, organization or go greek- Universities are huge and it's easier to make friends in organizations because most people wear headphones and sunglasses when walking around campus or on the bus. Also this helps find future roommates, I have heard too many horror stories of kids having to resort to Craigslist or a roommate match up.

Nobody messes with my clique.

7. Learn to cook and eat somewhat healthy- Freshman 15/30/50 exists.

An example of not what to eat on the daily.

8. Do not be that one kid who gets overly drunk at parties- Learn your limits and don't go past them.

9. Break out of your shell- Try new things, even I did Army ROTC for sometime.


Last but not least

10. GO TO CLASS- All this money  is being shelled out for your education. Don't be that one kid who had no idea there was an exam. You'll need all those A's to keep your GPA up when you're in 3000 or 4000 courses. Also don't take all of your elective classes your freshman and sophomore years, you'll need those to make the course load easier when you're in your core classes.

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